This might make sense, might not. See, that’s exactly what this blog is about.
We talk, and express ourselves. But at times what the other party understands is just what we did not mean.
Why can not it be like mathematics where 2+2 is always the same?
Why do we need the tone of the voice, the look in the eyes, and the enunciation of the words to make out the intensity with which the speaker spoke, to interpret a simple sentence like “I DO”?
Why does it happen that at times what is stated in black and white seems everything except the obvious?
When you are reading this, you think, what the hell is it, but when I am writing it, it seems the most logical thing to me.
Isn’t it funny, some people have a way with words and when you begin arguing with them, with the most unshakable of beliefs in the infallibility of your logic and after the argument you have serious doubts about your thought process.
One faculty of the brain thinks, the other makes a logically coherent sentence out of it and the third is required to flex the muscles and you pronounce the words. And at times you feel that in that process the sense is lost. What you have said is not what you wanted to say. What the listeners has understood is not what you meant.
Whom do you blame? The process, the seeming incoherence of the entire process or the medium you chose?
I will put the blame on the medium, language. It has done wonders in the civilization, but at times it has failed.
It has betrayed its very purpose of existence, to express.
Why should expression of feelings be inhibited by the strength of one’s vocabulary?
How come something as mundane as the word power limits something as powerful as thought?
We have allowed it to control us. We have not explored other mediums of expressions, because we believed (or tricked ourselves in believing) that we have the all powerful medium.
How we have fooled ourselves.
And when I say we, I put blame on myself as well. I am using this web page to communicate to you, that I have failed as well. After 22 years of existence, this is the only medium I can communicate to you. With all its weaknesses, lack of options with me has made it the only tool I can use. I can’t dance and can’t paint. And it is people like me, who try to kill the dance, and the art.
We are so mediocre that the moment we come across brilliance and ability to break the path, we shower accolades. And trick them to believe that all there was to achieve is achieved. We are scared of the intellect, the light.
It is still dark, inside. Who said that the time we moved in the dark, shouting “Tamso Ma Jyotirgamaya” is over.
It is not. Won’t ever be. Because again, the light of knowledge will come hidden behind the dark words, words which will mean different things to different people. And then, we will phrase, and manipulate, to suit our own interests and we will customize the universal.
I wonder how much we have lost in those black and white prints!
Tamso Ma Jyoutirgamaya.
Asato Ma Sadgamaya.
Mrityorma Amritamgamaya.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
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9 comments:
hey abhishek, you are very true in saying that language is killing the other forms of communication for e.g. art which is much more communicative and expressive in its entirety. language is also restricted by the boundaries of nations beyond which people will not be able to comprehend your words unlike a work of art which will be understood the same by everyone irrespective of the language background, but again it's a tradeoff between convenience and desired effect which we have chosen, and now we are too dependent on it to condemn it.
Hey... if u cant express urself with language then i'll hav 2 wndr who can.
trust me, u r 1 of d best speakers i'v seen in my 22 yrs of existence. u r a prsn who has a viewpoint on every aspect of life and who can actually influence d masses.
Let me comment on this in a sarcastic way, choosing english language specifically, since it is has become the Lingua franca of this world.
We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce, and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So, one moose, 2 meese? One index, two indices? Is cheese the plural of choose?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
In what language do people recite at a play, and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can the weather be hot as helll one day and cold as hell another?
When a house burns up, it burns down. You fill in a form by filling it out and an alarm clock goes off by going on.
When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it?
Now I know why people flunk in English. It's not their fault -- the silly language doesn't quite know whether it's coming or going.
i beg to differ with what swapnil says. english is a beautiful language. its all about playing with words. i say if you dislike this "silly" language so much, tell me what do you read in the mornings?? a hindi newspaper or an english one? which was the latest novel your read?? oh dont tell me it was english. accept the fact that english has had a monumental effect on us. curse it as much as you wanna, its the language of the world.
Hey Abhishek,
Finally I read it all.And there is a lot in this piece about language and expression .So I find myself incapable of dealing with all of it at once.
At present I am concerned with the first part of your piece about the scepticism with the ability of language to express.I agree that language is not a self sufficient medium for expression. The context in which a word is spoken, the individual subjectivity of the speaker, the various conscious and subconscious forces that manipulate and censor even our day today utterances hardly leave language as an unpolluted or a pure medium of ccommuniction or expression.If we imagine language as a field that contains words, syntax, letters...everything..then we can assess language in two ways. But before that one has to keep the primary premise clear..that language is an insufficient means of expression. One does not always express what one wants to. One falls short of words or one can even with all the vocabulary at hand fail to express himself in an exact confident way.So we come back to the two ways in which we can assess or view this situation..
...The first one is to believe that there is something within all of us which we need to express through language. There is a pure thought, a pure feeling, a pure sentiment or emotion that needs to be expressed. And in the process of an exact translation from thought to words..one fails, language fails..leaving the thought finally unexpresed or not fully expressed. So language becomes this infinite field with play of words which is by nature escapes any effort towards its complete grasp.One can then lament about ones failure and carry the nostalgia for the unexpressed with oneself.The other way is to consider language as a limited field with an infinite play of words..a field with infinite substitutions for the center(the thought to be expressed for example); where there is no nostalgia for the unexpressed but a brave acceptance of the limited and differential charcter of language.And then one can celebrate this imperfect but indespensable tool of words and meanings and expression and feel the joy in every creation. But mind you the creation will never acquire a novel status. In this scheme of things there is not necessarily any newness, any progress.There is just change, for better or for worse. The simplistic belief in change as progress is thus ridiculed.
I don't think anyone could have discussed this issue or rather sorted it out the way Nishtha has. some more on this later... gotta sign off. but an interesting discussion, i must say.
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